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Fasting INCREASES Inflammation
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Watch the video here: https://www.livelongerformula.com/content/fasting-increases-inflammation
Are you following health trends that actually harm your health? In my eye-opening masterclass "The 7 Popular But Deadly Health Fads," I reveal how common health practices promoted by influencers and gurus might be ravaging your gut, accelerating disease, and shaving years off your life.
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Transcript
Introduction to Fasting and Inflammation
00:00:01
Speaker
Hey there, Christian Yordanoff, welcome back. um Today we are going to look at how fasting actually increases inflammation. We're talking about fasts of 48 hours or more, that's what the researchers looked at. There's 14 papers that they looked at for this specific review. And as you're gonna see, at best,
00:00:21
Speaker
the inflammatory markers didn't rise much or like there was a slight lowering but the majority of studies actually showed an increase in inflammation based on the markers that they tested for and I'll conclude this will be a shorter episode and video which by the way will be on YouTube in case you want actually see me going through this through the paper here but i I'll cover everything on the podcast as well if you're listening on the podcast I'll cover everything in detail um But this, we will conclude the video with kind of some...
Does Fasting Reduce Inflammation?
00:00:53
Speaker
some discussion around the whole concept of... Like when people say, when influencers and doctors out there shilling fasting say, fasting we will lower your inflammation, what that actually means.
00:01:07
Speaker
notice that There could be an anti-inflammatory component to not eating food, right? But in my view... we can actually achieve that anti-inflammatory aspect without starving a person. So if the benefits of not eating food is reducing inflammation, there's other ways that we can actually clean up. We can, of course, clean up the diet. We can look look at food sensitivities from like ah an immunological perspective. How are the foods getting triggering the immune system, right? And we can remove the most triggering foods. That's what we do with our USA clients. There's a lab test that we do where they take your blood. There's only one lab that does this.
00:01:51
Speaker
And they take your blood and they expose it to various foods and even certain chemicals found in the food supply like caffeine, MSG, certain colors and so on and so forth. And they actually see what are the most...
00:02:05
Speaker
triggering most inflammatory things in the diet and then of course we can remove those but then even with the middle kind of the middle of the road things that are not quite you know yellow in terms of inflammatory status kind of on the up uh higher end of green we can create a plan over several months where we can um exclude and then reintroduce every month certain foods that allows further sort of quelling of the inflammation. It gives the gut a break, that inflammation reduction allows the gut to heal
Chronic vs. Acute Inflammation: Risks and Responses
00:02:38
Speaker
faster. Of course, the immune system being less hyperactive, it costs less in terms of energy and nutrients because it's expensive resource-wise producing inflammation.
00:02:49
Speaker
It also, of course, reduces collateral damage that that chronic inflammation causes in the body. It can be tissue damage. It can be know the joints, the brain, the nervous system. It can happen anywhere really in the body depending on our on our weak links. So we can achieve these. anti-inflammatory effects that people that starve themselves get by cleaning up the diet, which a lot of people need help with, and then further removing the the more reactive food in a person if they're in the USA. um
00:03:22
Speaker
So that's kind of that that's really the, quote-unquote, the secret sauce. We don't have to starve a person in order to lower inflammation because, as you will as you will see in this review paper, they looked at 14 studies where The majority, i think I mentioned that already, the majority are showing an increase in inflammation. So i'm going to kind of discuss why that that might be. So the paper is called Long-Term Fasting and its Influence on Inflammatory Biomarkers, a Comprehensive Scoping Review. And here are the highlights. This is from ScienceDirect.com. So highlights.
00:04:04
Speaker
Inflammation often increases during prolonged fasting. Contrary to popular belief, most studies show rises in C-reactive protein, interleukin-6, and TNF-alpha, tumor necrosis factor alpha, during fasts of 48 hours or more, suggesting a pro-inflammatory response rather than the expected anti-inflammatory effect.
00:04:31
Speaker
Then, refeeding can reverse inflammation, but not always. Some studies report CRP, C-reactive protein, this is you know kind of ah an acute phase reactant as it's known. It's kind of more of a generalized marker of inflammation. You don't know what kind of raised that marker. It could be no bacterial, toxic, whatever toxin. um But we know it it's ah it's ah a marker of inflammation. When it rises, generally there's inflammation going on. If it's chronically elevated, it means there's chronic inflammation going on in a person.
00:05:02
Speaker
So, some studies report CRP normalization or reduction after refeeding, while others show sustained inflammation, highlighting inconsistent post-fasting outcomes. they Here they kind of speculate a little bit that this causes potential risks for at-risk individuals. So in elevated inflammatory markers during fasting may exacerbate cardiovascular or thrombotic risk, especially in people with pre-existing conditions such as atherosclerosis or those on oral contraceptives.
Mixed Results and Study Demographics on Fasting
00:05:35
Speaker
Interesting. Lots of ah women, especially in the USA, on oral contraceptives. And then, so let's let's look at some of the, so what did I do here? So basically, they included 14 studies that met their criteria. And then again, this is in the abstract still. Again, they they state this. Contrary to popular belief, the majority of studies reported either no change or an increase in inflammatory biomarkers during prolonged fasting. Okay.
00:06:09
Speaker
So this is it. This is the crazy thing. and The fasting will lower your inflammation, they say. And again, you have to remember, these people likely that they studied at least some of them would have had food sensitivities because everybody that we test actually has some foods that they eat on a regular basis that are fairly too highly inflammatory. um Very, very few people get like super lucky where like all their favorite foods, their daily foods are not inflammatory. I mean, like at least not not one or two that we have to remove. Very few people kind of slip through with no change, nothing has to be has to be removed. So those people coming into these papers... there And it's likely at least some of those people ate like a really bad diet. So in spite of removing food, that could be some of which could be potentially inflammatory, despite of you know removing just in general bad food from the the diet,
00:07:07
Speaker
The overall result was that ah and in the aggregate, their inflammatory biomarkers still were increased.
00:07:18
Speaker
And ah and and the like I said, the majority of studies reported either no change or an increase in in inflammatory biomarkers. So it's kind of it's worth it's worth really drilling that in because everywhere you look, fasting will lower your inflammation.
00:07:36
Speaker
CRP levels frequently rolls often significantly during fasting periods, particularly in individuals with overweight and or obesity. okay This is actually important, particularly with folks that are overweight or or or obese. okay That's important to kind of keep in your at the back of your mind. so Some studies also reported increases in TNF-alpha and interleukin-6, though results were less consistent. Okay. Now, I'll just kind of add this for um completeness of the results they saw. Importantly, several studies showed a reduction or normalization of CRP levels after refeeding.
00:08:19
Speaker
suggesting that the inflammatory response to fasting may be transient or adaptive. These discrepancies may be due to differences in fasting duration, participant characteristics and study design. Now the thing to remember here is just because ah a marker of let's say oxidative stress or let's say cortisol or an inflammatory marker in this case, just because that normalizes after the fast or eventually, let's say two weeks after the fast, just because it normalizes or is a little bit lower, that doesn't mean or that doesn't negate, I should say, all the damage that occurred during the fast, right? Because you have to remember, inflammation, when it's elevated,
00:09:07
Speaker
Yes, it in many cases, inflammation is an acute healing response, but i kind of sometimes liken it to imagine you have a bookshelf at home and then it catches fire and you see that and you grab your fire extinguisher and you extinguish the fire. Well, you extinguish the fire, you you know you kind of save your house, but some of your books got damaged. So that's the collateral damage that is created when we produce inflammation. So there could be tissue damage depending on where it's happening. So just because a marker, they really explain away a lot of stuff like this with with these studies because they'll say, oh, the cortisol increased over, let's say, the the fast or let's say a low-carb diet over the first three weeks, the cortisol increases but then it normalizes.
00:09:56
Speaker
So they explain away the fact that that cortisol increase caused
Oxidative Stress and Fasting: Benefits or Risks?
00:10:01
Speaker
damage to the body. It basically caused the death of cells. Cells were dismantled, broken down, so that they could then be you know used to produce glucose and and some of their components, amino acids, vitamins, minerals, could be used elsewhere in the body. So this is what i i kind of wanted to... ah The reason I wanted to mention this is just because the inflammation...
00:10:24
Speaker
normalizes later, we cannot explain that away because that was causing damage. and And I'll show you another study later on in the next couple of weeks where the oxidative stress increases during ah the the the fast. and then But in that study, they were looking at marker oxidative stress, malandialdehyde, but they also were looking at antioxidant capacity.
00:10:51
Speaker
So they were like, well, the the oxidative stress increased, but so did the antioxidant capacity, so that's fine. No, the antioxidant capacity increases because of the the oxidative stress. It's like, ah you know um you know, your village is getting attacked, and then you you say, well, there's a great defense response by the the men in the village, so that that village is very resilient. Well, the reason that's happening is because the village is getting attacked. How about we stop dam doing damaging things to the body so that antioxidant capacity doesn't actually have to increase?
00:11:28
Speaker
Sorry, that's that's a bit of a tangent that we leave that for another day. So
00:11:35
Speaker
let's see what else.
00:11:38
Speaker
Here are the 14 studies. okay so They have them listed by author, year, study design, the the the people in the study, the aim of the study, the fasting protocol, and then the key findings.
00:11:55
Speaker
I'll briefly go over them. This first one, Van Herpen, year is 2013. It was a randomized crossover trial. think that was the only randomized trial here.
00:12:07
Speaker
ah So, 10 healthy men, look at this, age was 23 years, plus minus 0.8 years.
00:12:19
Speaker
Their BMI was 22. So they were like young, probably young, broke college kids, or just young dudes that were like, i need money, I need to join us fasting study. Maybe they'll pay me something or something. Or I can't afford food anyway. Let me go and do a fasting study. At least it's for the greater good. So these are 23-year-old guys.
00:12:42
Speaker
Like, I don't... Excuse my French word. I don't give a shit if this study to finds benefits or whatever... Because it's in 23-year-old people. 23-year-old men can take a tremendous amount of punishment. Just because you you have a you know a good result with 23-year-old guys is not sufficient evidence than to say someone that's 40.
00:13:13
Speaker
never mind 50 or 60 should do that thing even if you see good results, right? So they did two 60-hour water-only fasts versus controlled feeding matching energy expenditure and they found no statistically significant changes in CRP, TNF-Alpha and interleukin-6, IL-6. So a couple of things. So 60-hour fast is...
00:13:40
Speaker
fast is not too long, couple of days, two and a half days. um And that so that's one thing to to remember.
00:13:51
Speaker
Then again, they were very young. Now the next Now, I should say that this these first few papers are with normal weight individuals, okay? Just that that's important to remember, like I said earlier. So, the next one, Van der Krabben, 2008 crossover trial, six healthy men, age was 19 24.
00:14:13
Speaker
to twenty four And their BMI was 19 to 22.8. point eight So they were like 19, like at 19 years old, you could starve. You could have, I swear to you, I swear to you. At 19 years old, you could have starved me starved me for a month and I would have come out the other end unscathed.
00:14:32
Speaker
Like the amount of dumb things I did between that age, 19 and 24, I could literally stay up three days in row partying, drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, and then I could go to the gym and you know a day or two after you know sleeping for whatever amount of time. like we could You can take any amount of punishment at that age. This does not tell us much about how you're going to react to this in your 40s and your 50s and your 60s, especially like later on in life, in the 70s. Imagine thinking that this would would kind of reassure us that older people should fast. Now, they looked to investigate effects of fasting with or without aspirin and whether that would attenuate fasting-induced insulin resistance.
00:15:17
Speaker
And so they did two 60-hour water-only fasts with or without aspirin, up to 6 grams a day. And again, here, are no statistically significant changes in HSCRP, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, again, inflammatory marker.
00:15:35
Speaker
IL-6, also an and inflammatory marker. Okay. Next one was Okubo 1999. They had one arm um of the study. It was just 12 women with rheumatoid arthritis.
00:15:48
Speaker
um So basically...
00:15:54
Speaker
They didn't specify the age here. So we don't know what their BMI was. This is already like not a good thing. But they did um five day fast. So basically they were doing a 55 day vegan diet of 1200 kilocalories.
00:16:10
Speaker
With three three to five day water only fast. And they found that they only look at the the CRP here. There was no change in CRP. Now I don't think. I don't think this study really is telling us much here because they're looking at a vegan diet. On top of that, was only 1,200 calories, right?
00:16:30
Speaker
So this, and they only looked at one marker, so this is not really too useful Here, because again, they looked at just one one marker, CRP, and then there's a lot of confounding variables. Again, 55-day vegan diet that could have a profound sort of effect on on the results of the study, as well as the 1,200 calories a day that again going have...
00:16:58
Speaker
going to have It's just they're studying too many things at the same time here. It doesn't really make much sense to use this in a fasting-only centric um review, but you know, whatever. it It met their criteria and there's relatively few studies that could could have been included because, as you saw, there's only 14 here.
00:17:17
Speaker
So that was in normal weight individuals. Now in overweight individuals, this is where things start getting interesting because we start to see increases in inflammation during fasting and here they use longer fasting protocols.
Body Composition and Inflammation During Fasting
00:17:31
Speaker
So the first one was Fazeli 2020.
00:17:33
Speaker
twenty twenty that Fazeli is the surname of the the researcher, the lead researcher, the lead author of the paper. it was a one-arm study, so they only looked at the intervention. There was no, like, you know, you know they can have um a control group that they might like just, like, do nothing or or eat normally or whatever. Like when you do keto versus, you can do just a study on keto people or you can do, like, a two-arm study where it's keto people versus, you know, people that just continue eating the same way and then look at, compare them. It's a little bit more useful because like sometimes sometimes sometimes excuse me um sometimes
00:18:11
Speaker
the people in the non-experimental arm, ah you know, if you compare, just as an example, there was one paper where they looked at people that were intermittent fasting and we'll do a video on this and then the other group, they were just eating normally throughout the day and what they found was that the intermittent fasting group their weight loss basically didn't exceed that of the the people that were eating throughout the day.
00:18:39
Speaker
But what they did find compared to the group that were eating like just throughout the day, that were doing time-restricted eating, they found that the intermittent fasting group or the trend time-restricted eating group, they actually lost significant lean mass in their legs and arms. So that's why it's valuable to have two arms in a study. So anyway, this was seven healthy adults, pretty young again, you age 29, that's 29, I was still doing dumb things i and I could do them for days on end, weeks on end. So, again, you're pretty resilient. i if i were to
00:19:16
Speaker
If I were to like see good evidence that people can fast and and it's good for them, whatever, we need to study older people and actually see good results. What we're seeing here is we're studying young, healthy people or or at least young people, and there's the the results are is so underwhelming. They're actually just... um I'm surprised that...
00:19:39
Speaker
more people haven't actually seen through the bullshit here. So seven healthy adults, 29 years of age, plus minus 5.9 years. This was a 10-day water-only fast. So here's what they found. CRP significantly increased with fasting, peaked at day three and remained elevated.
00:20:00
Speaker
TNF-alpha and interleukin-6 significantly increased. okay Then the same a group a year later, Fazeli 2021, they did another study of follow-up with 23 healthy adults. This time they were slightly older on average, 33 old.
00:20:21
Speaker
plus minus 1.4 years. Their BMI was 26. upper bound of the normal quote unquote weight is 25. So they were just very slightly above that.
00:20:34
Speaker
And they did a 10 day high calorie protocol followed by a seven to 10 day fast. okay The CRP significantly increased with fasting.
00:20:45
Speaker
TNF alpha and interleukin-6 non-significant increase. Then there was another one in 24, it was published, Kiroz, one arm, 11 healthy adults, age was between 40 and 56, BMI was between 24.9 to 29.1. This was a three-day fast. so There was a non-statistically significant increase in CRP. TNF-alpha significantly decreased after fasting. So this was three-day fast, but you saw in the previous word two were ten-day fasts, where we see the CRP. You see here?
00:21:22
Speaker
CRP significantly... though This was the first one looked at. CRP significantly increased with fasting, peaked at day three, and remained elevated. So that's the thing. Maybe maybe a three-day fast...
00:21:39
Speaker
might not show the the full extent of the the the inflammation, right? So if you stop of a study at day three, you might not see a lot of bad things that are that are happening throughout the study, especially if you're not going to do a follow-up down the line, which so many of these studies, they're not actually doing like a three-month, six-month, 12-month follow-up on these people, which is such a waste of all that effort because at the end of the the end of the day, a follow-up is really they come in,
00:22:08
Speaker
and you know you get some measurements, biomarkers, it's it's obviously not cheap of course and i get that you you know that would prolong the paper or the study and you have to like publish a new paper because you want to like get your your study out, published as soon as possible, you don't want to wait and not a year, so but you have to do could maybe you could do a follow-up paper, but it's just more work and more cost and more admin and managing micromanaging people and herding cats like that. so I think probably that's why they're not doing it.
00:22:40
Speaker
Or maybe, i doubt it, but maybe they're just afraid of what they're going to see. Although I doubt that because i think most of these researchers, they have been indoctrinated into the whole calorie restriction increases lifespan in animal models.
00:22:55
Speaker
and fasting does as well with like rat studies. Therefore, this is the the panacea for everything, for health, for reversing disease, for ah yeah increasing longevity, for losing weight. And it's really a terrible strategy for all of those things.
00:23:15
Speaker
Then Scharf 2022, 48 participants aged between and to
00:23:26
Speaker
They wanted to assess fasting and refeeding effects on cardiometabolic risk. This is nauseating, always looking for the cardiometabolic risk or weight loss. And like looking at cardiometabolic risk is like, okay, the the blood sugar and the insulin and the the blood pressure and a bunch of these cholesterol getting lowered and then they're padding high-fiving each other and patting each other on the back that there we improved cardiometabolic risk. Yeah, of course you did because all of those things over, you know, five, ten days of fasting will lower because the person is slowly dying.
00:24:00
Speaker
Yeah, that's why the blood pressure lowers and the insulin, there everything is lowering, except stress hormones, of course, because the person is dying. So, yay, cardiometabolic risk. So, 10-day fast, 5-day refeeding with whole plant foods, yay, great.
00:24:18
Speaker
Those poor people, I feel sorry for them. Especially those, they're 40 to 70 years old, so those older folks, I really feel sorry for them having to to be a part of this. So, look what they found. HSCRP increased post-fasting, but decreased below baseline after refeeding. So, that's all they looked at here in terms of inflammation. So with eating sometimes, i've and I've seen it in other papers, the so the CRP might – not just CRP, but certain inflammatory markers actually increase during the refeed period. So that's kind of – excuse me. That's another sort of thing –
00:24:55
Speaker
that take they just seem to gloss over most of the time. Because look at what they said here. It increased post-fasting, but decreased below baseline after refeeding.
00:25:07
Speaker
So it was... so Sorry, in this case, it was at the end of the fast, it was increased, but after refeeding, it was lower. So again... Here I kind of misread it a little bit.
00:25:18
Speaker
So it increased during the fast, HSCRP, but it was lower off ah after the refeed. But what I've seen, what I was kind of getting at just now is I did a video two videos ago or two episodes ago. I did a video on this where i don't think I had time in that video to go over it. But some of the inflammatory markers actually increased during the refeed period for whatever reason. we're not sure why. So that's kind of another thing that I've seen.
00:25:47
Speaker
The researchers are not really seemingly, they're not putting too much thought into what's happening in these people's bodies during the fast that's causing the inflammatory markers to increase. And then what's happening in in the cases where the inflammatory markers increase during the refeed period, why is that happening?
00:26:08
Speaker
What's going on that suddenly these these are shooting up? So that's kind of just something to to think about because in in this paper earlier, like I said, they said... It could be that the increase in inflammatory markers is an adaptive process, but really what the hell does that mean? It's such a nebulous, sort of slippery um notion because cortisol increasing during fasting is an adaptive process.
00:26:39
Speaker
But it's adaptive in order for you to survive the stress of the fast. It doesn't mean it's good for your health. So you like I don't think you can paint something increasing inflammation...
00:26:55
Speaker
as it's actually ultimately beneficial. You know what I mean? it doesn't It doesn't make a lot of sense because this is the fast. It's not ah an acute injury like you know you bump your your elbow into something and then it swells up or you sprain an ankle and and it it swells up with inflammation. This is Supposedly we're told fasting is a rejuvenating process.
00:27:22
Speaker
So it how is it rejuvenating if people's stress hormones are skyrocketing, they're losing lean mass ah and their oxidative stress and their inflammation are are increasing. and their metabolism is lower three months down the line, as you saw in previous episodes. How is this rejuvenating?
00:27:45
Speaker
It's insanity. It's insanity. it's a It's a spell cast on the psyche of people that are looking at you know health and are interested in health. It's a spell that has been a narrative that has been weaved into the collective psyche of of all of us.
00:28:05
Speaker
Then, commisati 2025, one arm, 20 middle-aged volunteers, 52 years of age, mean plus 11.8 years, BMI 28.8 plus minus 6.4. So, 9.8 days of fasting plus minus 3 days, between 6-ish days to 20.
00:28:23
Speaker
so nine point eight days of fasting plus minus three days so between you know six six ish days to I guess close to 13 days, depending on the person, followed by 5.3 days of guided refeeding.
00:28:44
Speaker
So they saw HSCRP rose post-fasting but normalized after refeeding, ferritin, interleukinate, and mid-kind remained elevated. So again, you know,
00:28:57
Speaker
stuff, inflammatory markers remained elevated and then stuff normalized after refilling but was increased during the fast. Now that that's water only fasting and then finally there's a few where they did the the modified fasting protocol where they basically, it's ah the the basically the buckinger or Buckinger protocol that I kind of ah two episodes ago was talking about. So basically they used three about 300 calories that the people get during the the day. So fruit, juice, vegetable soup, and in some cases, honey.
00:29:32
Speaker
So it's about 300 calories, which is roughly speaking, what is it? ah should I should know this. 300 divided by 4. between...
00:29:43
Speaker
let's say around 75 grams of carbohydrate. for the most that's This sort of prokois is mostly carbohydrate, which again, I've said it before, has a great lean tissue sparing effect.
00:30:02
Speaker
right So if you if you're dying of starvation, it will be rapidly breaking down your lean tissue. even Even if you're in ketosis, let's say on day three to five, you're well into ketosis and you're kind of producing ketones and and using those, even then, you're ah until you die, you will be producing glucose, which means you will be breaking down your lean tissue. So you will never ever only run on fat and ketones ever. You're always producing glucose. So you will always be destroying your body in order to produce glucose.
00:30:38
Speaker
So if you add 60 to 75 grams of you know fruit, honey, orange juice, vegetable soup, whatever, you're adding first of all you're adding those carbohydrates that will spare the lean tissue. but also there's some other nutrients there vitamins and minerals not much but some potassium vitamin c whatever else that will come in and actually just have a beneficial effect because having something is better than having nothing if you're dying from hunger you'll survive a little bit longer so the first one was mesangi 2019 one arm men
00:31:19
Speaker
age forty four point six BMI 26.5, plus minus years, so you know between, let's say, to close
00:31:33
Speaker
sorry fifty eight or so years So then, data to so again, all of these following, they they did around 300 kilocalories of fruit juice and vegetable soup, like I said. So here at the TNF, alpha and interleukin-6, significantly increased with fasting and even more with refeeding.
00:31:54
Speaker
Then the next one, Lee, 2013, one-armed 30 women, age forty nine plus oneus eight years
00:32:05
Speaker
Here they looked at HSCRP, that significantly increased. PAPI, 2021, one arm, 36 individuals with metabolic syndrome. these These folks were a little bit older here now, 63 was the median age, BMI 34.8.
00:32:25
Speaker
um So here they did 4 to 10 days of fasting, non so non-statistically significant increase in CRP. And this could be because some some fasts were shorter, maybe that's why the there was an increase C-reactive protein, but it was not statistically significant according to the guys that that published the paper. Then you have Grundler, 2021, one arm, 40 individuals, age was 50.7 plus minus years. BMI was plus minus soup.
00:33:03
Speaker
so they did a fourteen day fast again with three hundred calories of fruit juice and vegetable soup This increased their CRP at day seven with return to normal at day 14.
00:33:14
Speaker
okay So the first part of the the fast, the first half of it, if inflammatory marker was increased. And then the Wilhelm de Toledo, 2019, one arm,
00:33:27
Speaker
one thousand four hundred and twenty-two individuals fifty five point years sorry 55.4 years give or take half a year let's say so they were about 55 years of age these folks 55 to 56 and um here the this they only reported on the HSCRP which was significantly increased and the fasting um duration was between 5 and 20 days so as you can see
00:34:00
Speaker
What's interesting is so with the modified fasting protocol where they have some some calories, with the longer, so seven plus days,
00:34:13
Speaker
we We see an increase in inflammatory markers. They didn't measure much. you know In one case, they did two. In other cases, it was just CRP or HSCRP, which is highensitivity high sensitivity CRP, C-reactive protein. And then with the fourth sorry with the ah the 4-10 day fast, there was non-statistically significant increase in CRP, but there was an increase. So then with the the first instance where it was three studies with normal weight individuals, that there was two 60-hour fasts, and then the other one was basically those with the young men that were between, in one case, there were 23 plus minus, give or take, 0.8 of a year. and Then the other instance, there was there were guys between 19 and 24. and then the other one was 12 women with rheumatoid arthritis, but they were doing a 55-day vegan diet of only 1,200 calories with water fasts thrown in there, so I don't think that's too useful, but in all three of these, there was no statistically significant increases in inflammatory markers. Now, with the two groups of healthy young men
00:35:22
Speaker
not not helpful also the fact that it's 60 hour water fast also not helpful um but then the overweight the one with the overweight individuals this is where you saw that a lot of these basically showed increases in whatever markers they were looking at HSCRP ah
00:35:54
Speaker
In this case here,
00:35:57
Speaker
TNF-alpha and interleukin-6, non-significant increase, but still an increase. In this one here, CRP significantly increased, peaked at day 3, remained elevated, and then TNF-alpha and interleukin-6 significantly increased. So it seems like if you're young and healthy and and the fast is short, it doesn't seem to be inflammatory.
Cardiovascular Risks and Inflammatory Markers
00:36:22
Speaker
If you're overweight and or
00:36:30
Speaker
a little bit older or a good bit older than 19, 23, 24, it seems like the likelihood of in you know at least inflammatory markers increasing is higher.
00:36:45
Speaker
So let's see what else they stated here. some stuff. I had some stuff here that was...
00:36:57
Speaker
highlighted um i got a new plugin that highlights text on the on the web page but it seems to not actually be sticking probably because of Brave browser it's kind of annoying because it it's now that I'm highlighting things that kind of know exactly what want to talk about without pausing but again it messed me up here so I have to find a better plugin but uh so let's see what's what's relevant here so look at this they stayed here in the discussion Prolonged fasting over 48 hours appears to induce an acute pro-inflammatory response in most human studies.
00:37:40
Speaker
Contrary to expectations, most studies reviewed reported either no change or an increase in HSCRP, TNF-alpha, or IL-6 levels regardless of fasting duration.
00:37:53
Speaker
And then they speculated little bit here. They say by chronic inflammation is a key driver of cardiovascular disease. particularly in elderly people with ather atherosclerotic coronary and carotid artery disease or thrombotic disorders by promoting plaque instability inflammation increases the risk of myocardial infarction stroke and vascular dimension Elevated CRP, a key inflammatory marker, is not only a predictor of cardiovascular events, but also a potential mediator of atherothrombosis. Studies have shown that CRP infusion triggers both inflammatory and coagulation pathways in humans.
00:38:32
Speaker
This scoping review finds that prolonged fasting acutely raises CRP in most studies, potentially exacerbating cardiovascular risk, especially in individuals with advanced atherosclerosis, atrial remodeling, coagulation disorders, or heightened thrombotic susceptibility, such as women, on certain oral contraceptives.
00:38:55
Speaker
So...
00:39:00
Speaker
I'm so annoyed that my highlights are gone. I apologize for this. Let's see, I have them here.
00:39:09
Speaker
Okay, I covered everything. the other i say I guess one thing I was just going to say, I kind of went over it. was the, in one study, 23 young participants, aged 22 to 44, underwent a 7 to 10 day trial, sorry, water fast while taking a daily multivitamin, put some potassium chloride.
00:39:30
Speaker
Results showed a significant 100% increase in CRP levels, while TNF-alpha and interleukin-6 showed non-significant increases.
00:39:41
Speaker
Um... Growth differentiation factor 15, another inflammatory marker, rose by 24%. A follow-up study with daily measurements in seven overweight individuals confirmed that CRP levels peaked on day three of fasting, remained elevated throughout the 10-day fast, and after refeeding, additionally, TNF-alpha, interleukin-6, and CCL-18 levels significantly increased by the end of the fasting period, aligning with an inflammatory transcriptomic signature observed in adipose tissue.
00:40:14
Speaker
So...
00:40:18
Speaker
the
00:40:21
Speaker
That's like you could, they they they go over they go over just a little bit more detail, the actual studies just to kind of give you an idea, but I don't think i don't think going in more depth here right now makes sense because we're at 40
Individual Variability in Fasting Responses
00:40:36
Speaker
minutes already. I just give you their their quick summary table here, the key findings.
00:40:43
Speaker
There was another one where there was a a bunch of additional markers that, oh, here we go. So, That's one I had highlighted. Finally, a single arm study of 20 middle-aged participants, mean mean age 52.2 years, undergoing extended water-only fasting 9.8 plus minus days,
00:41:05
Speaker
followed by five point three plus minus two four days of a refeeding period reported a significant rise in C-reactive protein from 1.7 to 3.9 mg per deciliter.
00:41:18
Speaker
That's obviously more than double, right? Normalizing post-refeeding in all but one case. And then they did... SomaScan proteomics revealed increased inflammatory markers fibrinogen, ferritin, IL-6, mid-kind, hepcidin, and chemokines CCL5, CCL7, and CCL17 with ferritin, interleukinate, and mid-kind remaining elevated during refeeding.
00:41:51
Speaker
Ingenuity pathway analysis indicated upregulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines, notably interleukin-15 and TNF, suggesting an acute fasting-induced systemic inflammatory response.
00:42:05
Speaker
That's the one I just wanted to kind of add before I wrap. So there you go. Fasting lowers inflammation a
00:42:15
Speaker
seems like it increases inflammation. Now again, let me just summarize what I i think I said earlier because I did start again this video so I can't remember if I mentioned that in the previous attempted recording where i had to pause. um So if, and I will say this probably multiple times throughout the the next videos and I'm going to have that in the book that's so important to understand. There's a few categories of people that are going fast, right? So there's the the health nuts that want up regular autophagy and, you know, live longer.
00:42:50
Speaker
They're doing it. They're healthy, probably weight body weight is close to normal. So they just want to do the autophagy, you know, the the cellular rejuvenation. fairy tale that we have been brainwashed with. So those people, especially when they eat clean, they will probably, the the younger they are, of course, the the better, but they will probably not have a terrible time with fasting.
00:43:20
Speaker
um But then you have the people, there's there's some people out there, there's a subset of folks that eat a really bad diet. And then maybe have quite a lot of weight they want to lose. So to them, they've tried different ways of of you know cutting calories, but what they haven't done really is probably consistently how cleaned up the diet and kept it clean for like eat multiple years. So they're likely to not be eating well and then they're likely yeah to have a lot of polyunsaturated fats in their body from seed oil consumption through whatever snacks and restaurant food and takeout. So those people, if you if you fast them, yes, they will get the benefit of eating not eating bad food.
00:44:05
Speaker
that will in terms of like ah if you have a scale, that will kind of have an anti-inflammatory effect and push the scale positively in that direction. But the that extra weight that they have, but that a lot of that fat that's on the body being polyunsaturated, getting released into the bloodstream, flooding the bloodstream, Because those polyunsaturated fats are linoleic acid, more specifically the most abundant polyunsaturated fat, that's a backbone, basically it's a precursor to inflammatory mediators in the body. So that, on top of the fact that these fats are very prone to damage while they're circulating,
00:44:49
Speaker
That can probably be one of the reasons that explains this rise inflammatory markers with especially more so with folks that are that were in that overweight category of studies. Okay?
00:45:04
Speaker
There's other reasons. It could be also chemicals that are lipophilic, that have an affinity to fatty tissue that are being stored in the in the fat, getting released as well, those who have some some kind of damaging inflammatory effect.
00:45:20
Speaker
um and the body has to deal with them, and we all have them. This is the thing to to understand. like you You are not, unfortunately, to tell you, you are not special. like They're finding these persistent organic pollutants, pops, in um ice in freaking Alaska and and various secluded places in the world. These things are everywhere. You better believe they're in your fatty tissue. Now, if you're again, if you're lean...
00:45:46
Speaker
and you've been eating super clean or or fairly clean for multiple years, you're on the health kick, you're very likely to harbor a lot less of the these polyunsaturated fats and these other lipophilic chemicals. And then, of course, you're eating clean, you're get eating more nutrient-dense, you're probably exercising, you're doing a bunch of good things for your body. So you might feel fine with fasting. In fact, you might feel good because of the stress hormone response that that can give you energy.
00:46:12
Speaker
um But that doesn't mean that just because you feel good with it, we can blanketly recommend
Is Fasting Universally Beneficial?
00:46:20
Speaker
fasting. I think it's so irresponsible by practitioners out there and health influencers to blanketly recommend fasting to everybody.
00:46:29
Speaker
Because a healthy person that eats clean and is close to optimal body weight or just a few a couple of pounds overweight, they're going to probably do fine, especially if they're you know under 40 or you know let's say even 45.
00:46:43
Speaker
The problem then is these other people that are coming in with a ah history of poor eating habits and then a lot of um a lot of just stored polyunsaturated fats and persistent organic pollutants. So that's going to be an issue for those people. And then you have of course then you have the people that might might again be eating well but they have some kind of health problem. It it could be autoimmune, it could be again, it could be some kind of gastrointestinal issue, IBS, GERD.
00:47:18
Speaker
inflamatory Inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn's, ulcerative colitis. In those situations, again, fasting, because the diet either the diet, even even if clean, it might not be clean, but even if clean, it might actually be, some of those foods might be triggering the immune system, or because the gut is so perturbed.
00:47:35
Speaker
You know, it's there there's a lot of inflammation being caused. and Then you have the intestinal permeability that over time then exacerbates those, um you know, the reactions to foods because, you know, you get you get the body being...
00:47:50
Speaker
um undigested food particles start getting recognized and and labeled as foreign invaders so we start producing antibodies and we have other ways to secrete inflammatory things like you know serotonin, histamine, prostaglandins in response to those things when they're in the blood or when the immune cells sense them when wherever you know they're kind of in in close proximity to them. So with those people, yes again fasting will tip the scale, just removing those inflammatory foods and triggers for the the gut, the irritants, and the the immune system, that will lower inflammation from that from that sort of aspect of it. But again, depending on the person's health, if they're overweight, if they if they've not been eating very clean, again, we we have the same issues as as I described prior. So really, it depends on the person how well they will respond to the fast. Not everybody will respond well to a fast even though they're removing inflammatory triggers from their diet.
00:48:57
Speaker
I've had you know clients that are quite underweight, to to pretty damn underweight, that have hypothyroidism or just a very stressed or a combination of of of all of those and then other issues like having had a prolonged plant-based stint.
00:49:14
Speaker
that now has them deficient in nutrients, hypothyroid, their job might be stressful, and then their guts all messed up. So, yeah, like take a sledgehammer approach and yeah fast that person. And if they're younger, they might actually, again, have symptomatic improvement. But the problem is, if you take that approach, because it worked for you as a practitioner or as a healthy person or whatever, or as a younger person, and you apply that to everyone, you're going to mess a lot of people up. So this is what i I really think is a huge disservice, and it's extremely, extremely irresponsible to go out there.
00:49:55
Speaker
You don't even know like what who your audience Well, maybe you do, like but if you if your audience is like older people, they know and i'm when I say older people, i mean like um'm I'm about to turn 40, so I think past 40 years,
00:50:10
Speaker
most people shouldn't fast. i genuinely think i for you can't You can't convince me most people need to fast. i But I have a lot of reasons that you can already see why people shouldn't fast past 40. But especially when we get to like 50 plus, 60 plus, like you can't, and especially if you have women that are, you know, of reproductive age or they want have kids at some point. Or people that are very stressed. Like you can't blanketly, irresponsibly just say, yeah, do this.
00:50:38
Speaker
It worked for me. I think that's extremely irresponsible and dangerous. So... That's that, you know, and with again, with those people with autoimmune, a lot of food sensitivities, food allergies, sensitive guts, I've seen it because I've worked with people with Crohn's disease, IBS, ulcerative colitis, other digestive problems, where we can help the person, in many cases, completely resolve all of those symptoms, get a new lease on life without starving them,
00:51:11
Speaker
by giving them, ah in in some cases, in improving diversity of the diet and and nutrient density, ah again, cleaning up the diet in many cases, and then identifying the the most triggering, the most inflammatory foods, and then, of course, adding all the other stuff, stress reduction, improving sleep, repairing regeneration, lowering stress hormones, supporting energy production,
00:51:38
Speaker
But really, a the the ground of all of that, the base layer there is, as you know, the diet. And instead of removing all the, like this taking a sledgehammer approach, removing all the food because some of them might be triggering, some of them might be inflammatory, let's take a more of a nuanced approach, do a bit of testing with with clients that can can you know afford it and have access to it.
00:52:05
Speaker
and clean up the diet, add nutrients, add so supplementation, do some gut healing protocols and allow that person who might already be deficient in not just one but multiple things, it's so common, to actually get the energy and the nutrients that they need for healing. Because when you're heating when you heal something when you're fasting, during and let's say a 10-day fast or whatever, when something gets healed,
00:52:35
Speaker
At least a subset of that energy that was used for that and some of those nutrients, most of those nutrients, they came from elsewhere in the body because, it's again, you have you need glucose.
00:52:46
Speaker
You will always produce glucose when you're when you're fasting. So if you need glucose... and energy and nutrients to heal the gut let's say or whatever the skin, let's say it's like a some kind of autoimmune skin condition, you better believe that a lot of that energy and nutrients was diverted from other processes that now went without energy and nutrients. They had to be down regulated.
00:53:12
Speaker
That's why three months down the line, as you saw a couple of episodes ago, That's why the metabolic rate is still way, way lower three months after ah ah it was a 10-day fast with the 300 calories per day supplement of Buckingham protocol. and That means that the body not just went without so other stuff can happen and even maybe even healing happened, but the body permanently, at least for now, or indefinitely, down shut down processes. And that's, to me, not a person getting healthier.
00:53:51
Speaker
That's a person ah having an emergency, some kind of horrible symptom or a set of symptoms that the body attends to because it's so bad at the expense of other stuff.
00:54:03
Speaker
right So again, the the fasting approach to people healing... Pretty much any health condition. The fasting approach, at least, again, in my view, feel free to disagree. We can agree to disagree. doesn't matter. You can do whatever you want. I'm not here to convince.
00:54:23
Speaker
If you don't agree me with me, I'm not here to convince you. I'm here for the people that are... that are kind of they want to see the other side of things they want to they want to get the full picture because ah in the mainstream and alternative to mainstream it's just positive things about fasting and as you can see it's not just positive things so It potentially can be used in some cases, in extreme cases, it potentially could be used maybe for ah a day or two in some cases to to stabilize or or just kind of reset a little bit things.
00:55:00
Speaker
But I personally...
00:55:04
Speaker
would keep that as a very, very last resort approach. And I'll tell you, like, I know this is ah a little bit tangent here, but they say, oh, you know, you look at nature, animals will fast when they're feeling sick. But the thing is, they're not going fast for long.
00:55:20
Speaker
You know, they're not going fast for like a week. My dog, over the last six years, God bless her, maybe maybe two or three times where she couldn't, she didn't eat all day.
00:55:31
Speaker
um It was either she didn't eat all day, was just kind of lying around, maybe drank some water, then she wouldn't eat her bowl of food, which is extremely atypical.
00:55:44
Speaker
You know, she this beautiful black bitch is going to eat, like, she will eat, like, 17 times in a day if you give her that. She will just eat until she bursts.
00:55:56
Speaker
Oh, God bless her. Love her so much. constantly constantly begging for food, but those two, three times where she didn't eat, it was either until the evening time and eventually she went and kind of nibbled a bit and then half and then ate it all, or then the next day she's already ready to eat. So these, and I know what one doggie day is like seven doggie, you know, one human day is like seven doggie days or whatever, so maybe it was a seven-day fast, but what it is is...
00:56:24
Speaker
It's very short. It's very short. And there's there's people out there, and I actually have clients that have done like a 21-day fast. One guy was doing like 30-day fast and then 7-10-day fast every quarter. Like, that's so unnecessary.
00:56:42
Speaker
It's so unnecessary because remember, i just um I know I keep repeating myself here, but remember, what are you running on when you're not eating for like 10 days or 7 days? You're running, yes, stored fat.
00:56:57
Speaker
But not just and keton not just ketones. You're still producing glucose. All of these processes in your body, your brain, your liver, your lungs, your skin, your bones, all of these processes processes require a lot of stuff, vitamins,
00:57:15
Speaker
minerals, nutrients, cofactors, enzymes, these things cost energy to produce in many cases, to repair, whatever, to recycle. And then you you're not getting vitamins and minerals at all through through the fast. So where do you think they're coming from? You're robbing Peter to pay Paul. You're robbing other parts of the body to maintain function. And then if healing happens, again, you've robbed yourself elsewhere for that healing to happen. So let's first try to nourish the body because, again, so many people, like would say probably...
00:57:53
Speaker
90% of the US adult population is deficient in multiple things. I would say easily, easily. Maybe not overtly deficient where you get scurvy or berry-berry, but subclinical deficiencies that simply keep you from from experiencing your full potential. So imagine you have people teetering on the edge of a deficiency, subclinical,
00:58:16
Speaker
And the imagine then you you pull the rug out under them and they might be 50, 60, a little bit weaker, older, less resilient, accumulated a lot of damage over their life. Maybe have some extra weight. A lot of that is polyunsaturated fat from you know poor diet, toxins, and so on and so forth, stored in their fats and toxic metals in their bones and whatever else. And then you're going to...
00:58:42
Speaker
You're gonna starve them of the nutrients they need to do to to maintain function and detox and detoxin breathe and be alive. and Why? Like, there is a spell cast on humanity right now, at least in the West.
00:58:59
Speaker
Because I doubt in developing countries, they're like, are you guys, are you, these white people are dumb as fuck. Are they fucking, they're starving themselves? Give us some of that food if you're not going to eat it. Because we're freaking, like, we'd eat three times a day here if we could, you know?
00:59:22
Speaker
Anyway, one hour. I can't seem to can't to do a short video. I hope at least that this is kind of, if you're new here, I hope it's starting to sink in because the the spell that's been cast, it's it's a big lie. It's been repeated. It's simple.
00:59:42
Speaker
Fasting, of autophagy. Fasting, lifespan. Fasting, reverse disease. Fasting, rejuvenation. Simple lie. Big lie.
00:59:52
Speaker
and constant repetition. go in Go right now, go on YouTube and find me one video where someone is saying fasting is not good for you. The best you see is like clickbait bullshit like, he's fasting a scam? And then the the guy just parrots or the gal, they just parrot the same old spiel about intermittent fasting, you know, toughy, yin, yin, yin, yin. It's nonsense, it's bullshit, fasting, starvation does not create health.
01:00:20
Speaker
You cannot starve yourself to better health. Now, again, if you're eating trash and then you take a break from eating trash or a bunch of plants and inflammatory things like beans and soy and nonsense, if you take a break from this trash slash inflammatory slop that so many people are eating nowadays, You will feel better.
01:00:41
Speaker
But hey, guess what will make you feel better? Not eating trash. Eating nice, good food. Organic, grass-fed, animal products, less shitty ass, vegetables, nuts, seeds, grains, nonsense.
01:00:55
Speaker
All of those things are pretty much inflaming people and irritating their guts and causing problems. Some people feel them a lot more. healthier people can can go longer without feeling those effects but those foods are not optimal foods so that's a great starting point if you're eating bad food and you you still think vegetables or eating a load of vegetables every day is good for you start there before you fast because i think i said this before but there was one forget where was there was one lady
01:01:31
Speaker
on Instagram, she she gave me a stern talking to, but it was fairly formal, you know, she was like, not like rude about it, but she's like, ah so I had a video about fasting is bullshit, and she's she's like, um sir, have you even tried fasting for a couple of days to see how how much less brain fog you'll have and how much better you'll feel and how much better your gut will feel or whatever, and I'm like, I just thought this to myself, I didn't want to get like, you know, didn't want to,
01:02:03
Speaker
create ill will or anything. I just didn't say anything. um But I was like, i don't have brain fog I already like feel good. wait Why would I starve myself?
01:02:19
Speaker
That's the thing. If you're already healthy and and things are going well for you, fasting is... a You don't need to fast. And then if you're unhealthy and you're deficient in things and your diet was bad and you're stressed, well, then again, you don't need to fast because you don't have your ducks in a row. It's going to be an additional stressor and you're already taxed and stressed. Body...
01:02:40
Speaker
in both cases it's a dumb idea it's like my dad when i was uh when i was a kid and i at one point i was like 15 and i would not shave yeah i would shave my head a few times but mostly like number zero just kind of super uh um my my hair was super short and then my dad he he at one point i asked him what do you think of my was wearing like the snapback cap it's really dumb like you know 15 year old kid what do you expect But I um asked my dad, what do you think of my my hairstyle? Because I used to like spiky hell with hair with gel when i was into like the offspring and all this nonsense. So anyway, my dad said, look, son, I got to be honest with you. It's dumb. It's a stupid idea.
01:03:22
Speaker
if you have hair, shaving your hair is like the dumbest thing you could do. And then he added, but if you're bold or balding, it's the best thing you can do though So we laughed.
01:03:37
Speaker
God bless him. um ah But it kind of, you know, in that in that sense, there is a ah dichotomy. But here with fasting, starving yourself, well, you're already like deficient in stuff and stressed and, and,
01:03:55
Speaker
you have symptoms of various sorts and your diet is terrible, fasting is a bad idea, although you're going to get a break from the bad food, let's just fix the the bad diet first and and the inflammatory things.
01:04:09
Speaker
And then if you're already healthy and you're eating well and all that good stuff, you've simply been programmed, this is a spell being cast, that you're going to live longer by starving yourself.
01:04:23
Speaker
because of the rejuvenating magical effects of autophagy which are bullshit which we'll cover in a separate video soon. thanks for watching and or listening and i will see you on the next one hope that you enjoyed this and you you glened some some insights here i think